The Essential

Mike Bloomfield
Chords & Rhythm
by Don Mock
The legendary Michael Bloomfield is remembered as one of the premier Blues/Rock soloist of all time. His improvising techniques and mastery of the Blues has influenced generations of aspiring guitarists the world over. But Mike was also a fine rhythm player and accompanist. Artist such as Bob Dylan valued Bloomfield’s chording and supporting fills he brought to songs such as “Like a Rolling Stone.” Mike also proved he was a team player in his own band the Electric Flag. He supplied perfect rhythm phrases to many of the Blues, Pop and R&B style tunes that featured vocals rather than his guitar playing. And even when he was thrust into situations where his guitar was the focus, such as the Super Session, Live Adventures and Nick Gravenites albums, he still delivered inspiring and energetic rhythm behind the vocals and other instrumentalists. This fourth installment of The Essential Mike Bloomfield takes a closer look at Mike’s rhythm playing. We’ll learn some of his favorite chord voicings and double stop moves. Growing up in Chicago, Bloomfield acquired an interesting mixture of rhythm guitar talents. He started out playing ‘50’s Rock & Roll. Eventually he became intrigued by the Blues and became the hot young player in town sitting in with as many Blues artist he could. But he also somehow got involved in the Folk and Bluegrass scene too and mastered finger-style acoustic guitar. He also played piano and admired R&B session players such as Steve Cropper, both which likely contributed to his rhythm guitar know-how. By the time Mike started playing with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, he was already an experienced young veteran with a sizable knowledge of chords and rhythm fills.

Chord Voicings
First up, lets explore some of the chord voicings Bloomfield relied on. Blues requires a decent knowledge of dominant chords and Mike knew all the classics. Example 1 shows several dominant 7th, 9th and 13th voicings that Mike can be heard using on recordings. Their roots are either on the 5th or 6th string (a few shown do not have the actual root on the 5th string but are in the same basic position.) Remember that 9th, 11th and 13th chords are just extended “fuller” versions of dominant 7ths and are interchangeable.

” It’s a great guitar performance all the way around including a fine country-ish solo and lots of classic uses of his double-stop phrases.
Example 6 is a six-bar excerpt from “The Weight. The series of hammer-on 3rds. Then he plays just the triad bar-chords with the organ while the bass plays a descending line underneath. Example 5 demonstrates several positions of the move over C major. Something that has always stood out to me about Mike’s rhythm playing is how well he “laid back” on the time. I’ve been around hundreds of young guitarists and one thing they all have in common is the tendency to “push” or rush when playing rhythm. The phrases in Example 5 also works great when played over Am. and I’m sure many other young players at the time.Double-Stop Phrases
Up next are some examples of Mike’s double-stop-rhythm phrases. Mike then plays one of his classic 6th licks to set up the next chorus.
6
. learning these little double-stop moves off Bloomfield’s records was a huge benefit to my own rhythm playing. Notice throughout “The Weight” how laid-back he plays the quarter-note comp.” It occurs around 1:08 into the track during the Csus2.
Example 5
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H H H H H H
C
(Am)
For me. you can liven up the chords of even the most boring and simple tunes. end with a Bluesy version at the 3rd fret. in the first two bars. It’s rare to hear a player in their mid-twenties having such a mature rhythm feel like Bloomfield. He often used them to add interest to his chord playing. They’re essentially 4th intervals that are played followed by a whole-step hammer-on of the lower tone creating a 3rd interval.
A great recording that you can hear Mike play several versions is on “The Weight” from “The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. The next three examples are country/steel-guitar inspired hammer-riffs which Mike used in many different situations. Armed with just a few.